


Going Home, Once Again

by fandom_oracle



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Zelena is gay, also firefly queen because I love this, and also giving zelena a more central role, and her wife is cute, for all the stuff I didn't like, this is basically a fix it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-08 21:46:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14703003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandom_oracle/pseuds/fandom_oracle
Summary: They did it; or rather, Gold did it, sacrificing himself to put an end to the Dark One once and for all, and now Regina feels like a little girl again, just as she was when Rumplestiltskin had first approached her; lost, confused, grieving. But she wasn't alone. She had a family to save, and a life to return to. The question is, how?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Basically a fix-it because I hated the idea of uniting all the realms in Storybrooke. For no particular reason, I just found it a bit cringeworthy. Most of the things that happened in the finale still happen here, tweaked a little. Also I tried to solve the timelines.

Regina stared from the balcony of what was once her palace into the night sky; _we won_ , a voice whispered in her head, accompanied by a _Rumple's gone_. 

The truth is, she never thought she'd face this day. Sure, there are _many_ things she could have never thought happening that just did. But the idea of a world where Rumplestiltskin wasn't there, ready to make a deal, still seemed a bit surreal; she had always assumed he'd outlive her, being the Dark One. There was pride at his willingness to sacrifice himself, there was grief at the thought of having lost her oldest friend, there was that repressed anger of a former evil queen ready to lash out because things were no longer under her control, but more than anything else, there was the confusion of a student whose teacher left her alone. And nausea. Gods, she wanted to barf. 

"What do I do next, Rumplestiltskin?" Regina whispered into the night sky, knowing fully well he couldn't answer, only to be interrupted by a quiet figured opening the door. 

* * *

 

"Regina... can we talk?" The accented voice of Zelena made itself heard, and it was hard for Regina to remember that in _her_ timeline, Zelena was currently living as a personal trainer in San Francisco and ready to marry the love of her life, a struggling artist named Carol who had _nothing_ of supernatural to her name. She wondered how this Zelena would react to that fact.

"What is it?!" She replied, trying, and failing, to bottle up just how supremely _frustrated_ she was. This was meant to be a victory, so why didn't it feel like one?

"I think we're still in quite a bit of a situation here" The Wicked Witch's voice came out, less tentatively this time "The timelines... are completely out of synchrony. This shouldn't even be _possible_. The universe is trying to expell us to get rid of the mess, can't you feel it?"

She could feel it, actually. The nausea must've been that. She just nodded.

"I've studied time magic for the bulk of my life. If there's one thing I know, is that if we don't fix the timeline _fast_ , something bad is going to happen" Zelena sounded critical this time; it wasn't her fault, she usually did. It was hard to listen to the Western Witch and not feel attacked; she had a way of making everything sound condescending. _Just like Cora_ , Regina thought. 

Zelena was a lot like Cora, in a lot of ways, both physical and psychological. Not in every way, though. _Not in the ways that truly mattered_ , completed the queen, thinking about Robin and smiling briefly.

"What do you suggest?"  
  
"I was thinking that maybe we could... do the time travel spell"

"Zelena, that's not possible!"

"It shouldn't be, but it is. Magic... apparently works like a glass ceiling of sorts. I've been studying the phenomenom for a couple of years" A gust of wind bust through the doors to Regina's quarters, briefly distracting the two women, before the Wicked Witch returned to her monologue "After a law is broken the first time, it becomes... more flexible. I'll spare you the technical details of the inner workings of witchcraft"

 _That's how Drizella was able to send us back in time_ , she thought again.

"But wouldn't you need the tokens?"

"Regina, look at the people who are here! Your family has more heroes per square mile than any other. David gave me his sword as a token of bravery; Robin says there's no one wiser than the Girl in the Tower, and Alice gave me her lunette as a symbol of that. Lucy's book, her belief... you can't get more innocent than her"

"And the heart?"

"Sweet Lurline..." said Zelena, facepalming " _your feather_ , Robin's feather. I know you have it, I can feel its power"

Regina groaned, handing Zelena the reddish feather. She didn't want to think about Robin, not here, not now. It was too much, and she was barely holding it together. Zelena gave her a worried look.

" _What now?!"_ The queen's voice filled the room, echoing in the palace that once was the heart of her reign of terror. She had flahses of many times equally annoyed quips came from her lips, usually followed by some sort of gruesome death. The room's temperature had _literally_ gone up by a few degrees. Through the now open doors of her quarters, Regina could see everyone staring at her.

"I don't have magic, and, may I speak frankly? I don't think you understand the complexities involved in time magic nearly well enough to cast such an advanced..."

"So basically, you're the only one that can cast it and you have no magic?" Regina said, lifting an eyebrow. _Well,_ she thought bitterly, _I could use some help, Gold._

* * *

 

 _"The curse"  
_ A gust of wind hit, causing Regina to turn her head. It reminded her faintly of Weaver's voice, or maybe it was just wishful thinking. 

"Did you hear that?" She asked her sister, who turned her head in a _no_ gesture.

 _"The curse"  
_ This voice was youthful, charming, and male, carrying a cryptic sadness in it. _Merlin's_ , Regina thought, being flooded with the image of Captain Hook, crushing Merlin's heart, while the primeval darkness of Nimue, watched, bitterness acorss her face.

 _"The curse"  
_ An older, female voice rumbled through her ears, and Regina saw herself again at Tiana's camp, facing the woman for whom she had little love, but came to respect. The woman she'd tried to heal, the woman she'd _failed_ to heal. _Rapunzel,_ she recognized, being flooded now with images of Drizella standing above a fire, gloating.

 _"The curse"_  
The immediately recognizable voice of her mother came to her, though Cora herself was nowhere to be seen; instead, Regina stood at a different spot in the same palace, while the fumes of Snow's curse spread peacefully, like a blanket over their bodies.  
  
_"The curse, dearie"_  
This time, stronger than the others, it was the cheerful voice of the Imp. And Regina stood, once again, in front of his prison cell, looking at him for guidance. And she understood.

"I know what I need to do"

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the sake of making the timeline clear, I'm assuming that Henry left Storybrooke in 2019, that 7x02 happened in early 2024, and that current characters are returning to later on the same year. I know Henry couldn't possibly have grown from Jared to Andrew in a mere year, but ignore that piece of canon in order for things to make sense. Also, season seven happens in 2019, not 2017 here.

"You want to... use the Dark Curse to power Zelena's time travel spell?" Snow said, disbelief crossing her face

"The original curse was a combination of an ancient fairy world-crossing spell and a memory alteration one. I don't see why we couldn't combine these two"

"But wouldn't you have to crush the heart of the things of you love most?"

"Not necessarily" Robin responded "Drizella said she only needs the _magic_ of a witch who crushed the heart of the thing she loves most"

"She could only do that because of residual, leftover magic from the _first_ time she did it" Zelena retorted, though she didn't fully understand the ordeal with this Drizella person.

"What about Snow? She crushed my heart" David's suggestion was quickly counteracted by Zelena, too

"Snow can't have _leftover_ magic because she has no magic"

"Guys, let me explain" Regina let out a sigh, wondering if what she was about to do was a mistake "The curse... brought us all together. It tied our fates together. It created this family.  Fiona thought power came from sacrifice, because she was willing to sacrifice just about anything, other than herself, for her son. I think... actually, I _know_ power comes from love. The curse has a story too, and someone needs to end it. Someone needs to give it a second chance, because no matter how much it hurt us, it brought us together. It _can_ be used for good. And I also know that I _have_ to be the one to cast it, one last time. I started this, and I have to end it. So what do you say, Zelena? The Mills Sisters back for one last spell?"

Zelena smiled, as a wave of hope that Regina could only have described as _insufferable_ a couple of years ago spread to all the people sitting at that table.  
  
"The curse will send us back home, to whatever _we_ call home, and send some of you back in time as well" Regina's monologue continued "And I don't need to crush any hearts, because you'll give them to me. Each of you will give me a bit of their love, which, I'm sure of it, is more powerful than any sacrifice can be"

* * *

"Where will I go?" Henry, the wish version, asked, annoyance almost palpable in his voice. He didn't like Regina, and he didn't trust her, and he certainly didn't love her. Not yet. Regina was okay with it. 

"That's your call to make. You can stay in the Wish Realm, or you can come with me. I know you don't want to be with _me_ , exactly, and maybe I deserve it. But I also know that Storybrooke is a place of second chances, where you can be free of the stigma of being... well, you"

"Could you stop calling it the Wish Realm?" Henry asked, for a single second sounding much like the vulnerable, innocent kid Regina was used to. "I'm just as real as you"

* * *

Hook and Zelena had finished carving the symbols necessary for the time travel spell into the stone floor of the palace. Having already placed each of the symbols in their respective directions. 

"It's time" Regina said, as they all sat in a circle. "Lift your hands"

They did as told, and a tingling sensation began to spread across their hands. They directed them to their hearts, and removed them in synchrony.

Hook's heart was filled with a darkness that was just beggining to fade away. By his side, Alice's grew, pure and bright red, as the Guardian's should be. Robin's was a bid faded, it glowed less, but wasn't truly dark. Henry's heart, too, was faded, and Regina thought she could see a few dark spots; it looked much like Jacinda's. Lucy, sitting by their side, had her heart almost as bright as Alice's. David's heart had a small dark spot, Regina noticed. So did Snow's, and hers was significantly bigger than her husband's. By her left, Zelena, sitting between her and Wish Henry, tore out her unique bright green heart. To the right of Hook, sat King Henry, and seeing his heart made Regina let out a little gasp.

It had more black than red in it.

Just like hers had had when she came across Tinkerbell, trying to save her son.

Everyone held on tightly to their hearts, and the room was filling with energy. Not the dramatic, brightly coloured magic they were used to, but a subtle buzzing, almost inaudible but one that you couldn't pretend didn't exist. As Regina whispered the words of the ancient curse, the darkest of magics made light, a small speck of purple smoke appeared above them, perfectly aligned with the center of Zelena's time travel circle. It grew, though barely larger than a tennis ball. Regina continued for several minutes.

She had lost track of time when the smoke had finally gotten big enough to engulf her, as a feeling of peace spread through her. She could only say one more thing before the tendrils of smoke whisked her back to Storybrooke.

"Thank you, Rumple"


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains swearing, but it's infrequent.

Robin opened her eyes to a vast grassy, poorly maintained yard. In the distance, she could see a barn and a simple farmhouse. At her side, Alice stood, giggling a little bit, with her hair unkempt. Robin smiled.

"Where are we?" Her girlfriend asked

"This is where I grew up" Robin said, matter-of-factly, as they walked towards the farmhouse.

"It's so... wide" Alice's eyes seemed to shine as she absorbed her environment, and the younger blonde remembered once again that for her entire childhood, Alice's world had consisted of a single room in a tower.

They eventually reached the door to the farmhouse, though it was locked. Alice placed her hand on the doorknob, and it opened.

"So your magic's back?"

"The smaller Henry must've written it back"

* * *

"This is my room" Robin said, somewhat excited to show the place to Alice. She walked around the place, consisting of a simple bed, a wardrobe, and a small dressing table with a lamp. The entire place had grown dusty. Alice seemed puzzled.

"Why is it so empty?" Wondered Alice, confused.

"What do you mean?"

"No paintings, no toys, nothing that says _you_ "

"Oh" Robin was still a bit dizzy from the curse, but she replied, after a few seconds of pondering "I guess I always wanted to sort of leave this place. It never felt really... _me_ , either. This was the Wicked Witch's house, where the Wicked Witch's daughter lived. I love my mom, I really do. But like, I guess I wanted my story to be about _me_ "

Alice bolted to her, embracing her with a strength that didn't seem possible for a small girl like her, and made her way to kiss Robin.

"Wait" Robin requested, as she directed her hopefully soon-to-be fiancé to sit in her dusty, unused bed. And she kneeled.

"Alice, when I met you, I was... Wait, crap, I forgot..." Robin scrambled to find the paper where she'd written about two pages' worth of odes to their love story... "oh, gods, oh, _fuck... y_ ou know that words aren't my thing, so I'll cut to the chase: will you marry me, tower girl?"

"Why'd you kneel?" Alice's face spelled nothing but confusion

"It's just... it's just what people do, Alice"

"Why'd they do that? I mean, if it were me being proposed to I'd rather look at my partner in the eye wouldn't I? Doesn't that make more sense?"

"It _is_ you being proposed to..." Robin contained the urge to facepalm.

"Oh, right. _Yes_ " And, amidst Alice's squees of uncontainable joy, Robin let herself breathe "Yes, yes, yes, in all worlds, yes!"

* * *

Regina allowed herself to breathe the clean, fresh smell of her office. She was sitting in her mayoral chair, as usual, facing two Henries, a tired Jacinda, and one hyperactive Lucy.

"Oh my gosh! This is Regina's office" She said, walking around like a much younger, overexcited kid, screaming about everything that had happened in the place that she'd read so much about "This is where aunt Zelena killed Hades!"

The former queen felt a pang in her heart; she'd lost the feather, Robin's feather, during the casting of the time-travel curse. She recomposed herself for her family.

"Yes, you are correct, Lucy"

"So... what do we do now?" Jacinda, always the practical one, said "Do we call you Regina or Roni or..."

"Just call me whatever you want to. We just survived a tough battle and these post-curse arrangements are  a ton of bureaucracy that I'll sort later. For now, you and Henry deserve some alone time, Ella" Regina said, giving the two a cue to live their married lives.

"As for you, sir Henry" The woman said, confidently, but lovingly. She wanted him to trust her, after all "You must be tired as well. Please, feel free to choose any room in the house. I'll provide food and clothing in a bit"

He nodded, impersonaly. Regina, again, couldn't blame him. She stood up, placing her hands on the desk.

 _Wait_ , she thought. _Clean desk?_

The curse brought them to the earliest possible point in the timeline where there would be no overlap. This means, if Regina was correct, a few months after Hope's birth, when Robin accidentally summoned Gothel in a fit of preteen rebellion. The house should've collected _some_ dust by now.

 _Oh, well_ , the mayor dismissed her own thoughts, _the Charmings must have it cleaned on occasion._

"Lucy, you come with me. There's someone I want you to meet"

"Who is it, Roni?!"

"Your _other_ grandmother"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -> 2019: Season 7 happens; Henry goes to EF 2.  
> -> 2024: Henry calls Emma, Regina, and Hook. Flashbacks of 7x02. Robin, at age 11, summons Gothel. Flashbacks of 7x11.  
> -> 2025: Where they return to in the timeline. 
> 
> It doesn't fit exactly with the show canon, but Robin's aging is a mess. I'm just going to assume that the farm Robin and Zelena moved to was in another realm where time passes faster so that's how Robin is a teenager.


End file.
